Category: Articles

Sometimes well-meaning laws have unanticipated consequences. Colin Clarke says mandatory bike helmet wearing has cut bike-riding (possibly in half), cost about 600,000 people real cash in fines, and helped make the nation fatter. Is it time for a re-thin…

Banned ‘black’ websites will suddenly jump from the current 1300 to more than 10,000 when Communication Minister Conroy’s proposed mandatory filtering system slows down Australia’s internet access before in trials starting before Christmas. But who will…

The Commonwealth’s conduct in legal cases is under pressure to improve amidst concerns it has a “win at all costs” approach, said the ‘Public Sector Informant’, the monthly newspaper ‘bible’ of the federal Public Service. Here’s the article, by CLA’s Bil…

The Clarke report into the detention of Dr Mohamed Haneef, the Gold Coast doctor whose relative had exploded a suicide device in Scotland, is postponed a second time. The inquiry, which cannot compel witnesses or the taking of evidence under oath, is now…

How will President-elect Barack Obama safeguard civil liberties and protect privacy? Believe it or not, he spells out what he hopes to do on his ‘Change’ website, which keeps people informed about the period of transition to full presidential power in Ja…

Caged like a ‘terrorist’ in Cuba, Brenden Abbott has less dignity than a dog. This emotive article by Rex Jory, of the Advertiser in South Australia, concerns a prisoner in Brisbane, Queensland. A Royal Commission into prisons said Australia’s jails woul…

The promise for faster broadband before the election. Was this done so that, when they introduce filters to filter out “undesirable” websites, no one will notice that the speed of internet access has been slowed significantly? – George Carrard

NSW is implementing a system to control young people that has failed abjectly in the UK. The Youth Control Orders – YoYos – deprive people aged 14 to 19 of free speech, freedom of association and freedom of movement. The ailing government of Australia’s…

As the Australian Government gets ready to censor the internet, CLA is fighting back with ‘Action Email Cells’ – groups to take the fight to the government. (See Home page article, and lead story in newsletter).Meanwhile the November newsletter a…

The Australian Government is about to censor your access to the internet: they will decide what you will be allowed to see and read, hear and view. The censorship will ban websites ‘they’ don’t want you to know about.

The Tasmanian AG has instantly rejected the CLA Australia Day call for an inquiry into the state’s legal system in 2020-2021. 'Nothing to see here, the system's perfect,’ she suggests. See CLA AUST DAY LETTER